It has been
about eight years since I came to live in Puerto Vallarta. Before that, I only
knew it as a vacation resort so I set out to explore the zone and believe me,
I am still constantly amazed by the biological diversity, the beauty of the landscape
and the sunsets and most of all, the wonderful people of the region. In
the area of Las Juntas and Los Veranos I met a man named Chero, originally from
Zacatecas who truly believes in the hidden treasures and in fact he looks for
them on the nights of the full moon because he says that where there is a hidden
treasure, it glows blue, green or gold, depending on what is buried. He makes
furniture with cuts of trees and a liana known as huamecate. Chero
showed me some very special places and many plants I did not know. One day while
we were talking, he told me that he knew the way from Las Juntas and Los Veranos
to Yelapa, that we could get there on foot. I was delighted with the idea of getting
to know the route, thinking that I could offer a different alternative to clients
who were in good physical shape and who loved adventure. And
that is how we got together with our friends from BikeMex with whom we had already
gone out exploring in the past, and along with some of their friends we went off
on our great adventure. We arrived early at Las Juntas
and Los Veranos and Chero invited us to have a coffee and a roll before starting
out. It was the first weekend in October, the heavy rains had passed and everything
was glowing, we could define all the tones of green that morning. We saw all types
of wildlife: armadillos, land turtles, butterflies, spiders and various birds.
As we climbed up and down many times, we also got to see some phenomenal panoramic
views. We stopped a few times for some food and water
and around 4:00 p.m. we asked Chero if there was still a long way to go as we
had been walking for 8 hours and that was how long he had estimated the trek would
take. That is when Chero confessed that with the growth
on the mountain due to the rains, he had lost his way quite a while back but that
we should not worry as we were sure to find it soon. The news was like a cold
shower to those of us who were already very tired, but we all knew that we would
reach our destination: Yelapa. We continued walking for
another two hours during which we had to cross the river various times and climb
rocks to bypass some spots that appeared as real obstacles. It
got dark and we decided to stop and wait for daylight before going on. We had
a few chocolates and we all shared them. I had a pair of space blankets - always
indispensable in any first-aid pack - so we laid them down on the ground to insulate
ourselves from the dampness of the soil and we laid down side by side to share
our body heat. At sunrise the next day, we got up with
renewed energy, we did a few warm-up exercises before setting out on our hike
once again and we went on. I remember seeing the most beautiful landscapes in
the woods, with that unique light of the sunrise, and the wild flowers. And finally,
after another three and a half hours, we reached Yelapa, walking along the riverbank.
The villagers saw us coming and they were very surprised. Obviously, it was not
often that they saw tourists walking at 9:30 in the morning. We
arrived at one of the restaurants on the beach that fortunately was already open
and I had the most delicious huevos rancheros I've ever had in my life. We were
all very tired and truth be told, we relaxed on the beach before taking the water
taxi that brought us back to Boca de Tomatlán on a rather bumpy ride over
the waves. We really looked awful by the time we got
back to Puerto Vallarta, but we all felt extremely satisfied and proud of the
great adventure we had lived. My friends from BikeMex
were bitten by the "bug" and they found a route to go from El Tuito
to Yelapa on mountain bikes, a trip that takes between three and a half hours
and a maximum of five hours, returning to Puerto Vallarta by water taxi. Isabel
Cárdenas Oteiza
AMTAVE
Pacific Zone Vice-President
openair@pvnet.com.mx
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